Union voting silos real stranglers of Labor

The ALP national conference has turned the spotlight on the slowly withering Labor Party. And once again the factional leaders have managed to hold off reform, like a dog fighting off rivals to keep control of a strychnine-laced carcass.

But there is one major difference between these two scenarios: the dog doesn’t know his power will end with the carcass; whereas factional leaders know their power will end with the carcass of the Labor Party.

However, you have to give credit to the factional leaders. They have played along with the idea that the real problem with the Labor Party is its factions. (Which is rubbish, factions will always exist in any broad political party.)

Instead, the real problem of the party is the voting rights of unions which deliver bloc votes to the factions they are aligned with and give those factions their power. This power strangles the life out of the Labor Party because it means that the two main criteria necessary for any group to be effective – independence of its members and diversity of members – are not met.

To get anywhere in the party, you have to be a member of a faction and toe the factional line, which means the requirement of independence is not met. And to get anywhere in the faction, you have to work in a union, MP’s office or for the ALP organisation which dramatically reduces the diversity of views people bring to the party.

It is no surprise that the state or territory where the Labor Party is most successful is the ACT. It is the only place where the bloc votes of unions have no role in the pre-selection of MPs and MLAs. And that success has only come after bloc votes for unions were removed.